Is a Federal Nordic State on the Cards?
November 2nd, 2010Via: Guardian:
Today the leaders of the five Nordic states are meeting to discuss the possibility of creating a Nordic federal state. Ever since the Kalmar Union of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden – reaching to Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney – collapsed in 1523, the idea of reinstating some sort of a supra-national Nordic state regularly crops up. Now this old idea has resurfaced in a book the Swedish history professor Gunnar Wetterberg submitted to the Nordic Council in Reykjavik today.
Wetterberg argues that together the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with the three micro territories the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland), will be stronger and more stable and prosperous than they are on their own. After Sweden and Finland joined Denmark in the European Union in 1995, leaving Norway and Iceland in the European Free Trade Association (Efta) (and within the European Economic Area, which brings them in to the European internal market), the Nordic Council has been in search of renewed purpose. Over the last 15 years the cracks have become ever more obvious in Nordic co-operation: it has been downgraded to cover soft policy issues such as culture, while economics and other hard policy has been transferred to the European level.
With a joint government and a parliament based on a common constitution, the federal Nordic state should concentrate on foreign policy and defence, the economy and the labour-market, and research, leaving most other policy areas to the regional authorities in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Reykjavik and Stockholm. Wetterberg compares his Nordic federation to the Swiss model and links it with the creation of the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, which he claims developed from a similar situation as the one now found in the Nordics. This Nordic state would have 25 million inhabitants and, because of its wealth, would be one of the larger economies in Europe, equalling that of Spain. Its economic size would secure the federation an influential seat at the G20.
Back to the Scene of the Crime: A Return to Jekyll Island: The Origins, History, and Future of the Federal Reserve
November 2nd, 2010See: The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.
Via: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:
This special conference marks the centenary of the 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that resulted in draft legislation for the creation of a U.S. central bank. Parts of this draft (the Aldrich plan) were incorporated into the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the drafting of the Aldrich plan, the conference will take place at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on Jekyll Island, Georgia—the same building where the 1910 meeting occurred.
The conference’s discussions focus on three themes: the origins of the Fed and lessons from the pre-1913 era, how closely the Fed’s actual performance has adhered to the original vision expressed by the framers of the Aldrich plan, and what the Fed’s almost 100-year track record teaches us about its role going forward.
Canada: Tories Reintroduce ISP Intercept Bill
November 2nd, 2010Via: CBC:
The federal Conservatives have reintroduced legislation that would allow police and intelligence officials to intercept online communications and get personal information from internet service providers (ISPs) about their subscribers without first obtaining a warrant.
Sarkozy: “Britain and France have pooled their sovereignty.”
November 2nd, 2010Via: Guardian:
Britain and France today signed a landmark 50-year treaty on defence and security that envisages the joint use of aircraft carriers, a 10,000-strong joint expeditionary force and unprecedented new levels of co-operation over nuclear missiles.
…
Cameron disclosed that the two treaties would:
* Create a joint expeditionary task force in which around 5,000 UK and French troops from all three services will train and exercise together from 2011. The force will be able to launch high-intensity peacekeeping, rescue or combat missions.
* Co-operate on an integrated strike force ensuring aircraft can operate off both the planned British carrier and the French carrier Charles de Gaulle. Operations would start with training missions, and would eventually provide cover when one nation’s carrier was in dock for maintenance. Britain will modify its future aircraft carrier to make it compatible with French aircraft.
There will also be new co-operation on procurement, including a joint common support plan for the future fleets of A400m transport aircraft being brought by both countries. The two sides also agreed to work together over the next 10 years on unmanned drone aircraft, as well as on nuclear submarine technology.
In a separate agreement that Cameron said would save hundreds of millions of pounds, the two countries agreed to co-operate on nuclear safety by building a jointly run facility at Valduc, near Dijon, that will model performance of UK and French nuclear warheads and materials in co-operation with a joint Technology Development Centre at Aldermaston.
The French laboratory will host British defence scientists to carry out tests on their country’s nuclear warhead stockpile, soon to be cut to 120.
In return, French officials will be stationed at the UK facility to work on nuclear test technology.
AE911Truth: Mark Basile Chemical Engineer
November 1st, 2010Via: Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth YouTube Channel:
Indiana: With Benefits About to Expire, Unemployment Offices Add Armed Guards
November 1st, 2010Via: 6 News:
Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what state officials said is a step to improve safety and make branch security more consistent.
No specific incidents prompted the action, Department of Workforce Development spokesman Marc Lotter told 6News’ Norman Cox.
Lotter said the agency is merely being cautious with the approach of an early-December deadline when thousands of Indiana residents could see their unemployment benefits end after exhausting the maximum 99 weeks provided through multiple federal extension periods.
“Given the upcoming expiration of the federal extensions and the increased stress on some of the unemployed, we thought added security would provide an extra level of protection for our employees and clients,” he said.
Some offices have had guards for nearly two years but those guards were hired on a regional basis, meaning some offices had armed guards while others did not, Lotter said.
Related: 99 Weeks: When Unemployment Benefits Run Out
George Hickenlooper, Director of ‘Casino Jack,’ a Film About Jack Abramoff, Found Dead
November 1st, 2010Natural causes…
Via: New York Times:
George Hickenlooper, a director whose credits include an Emmy-winning documentary about the making of “Apocalypse Now” and a film starring Kevin Spacey as the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff that is scheduled to open in December, died on Saturday in Denver. He was 47.
He was in Denver to spend time with his cousin John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver and a candidate for governor of Colorado, before attending a film festival where his “Casino Jack” was to be shown, said Liz Biber, a publicist for the film, who confirmed the death. John Hickenlooper said in a statement that his cousin apparently died of natural causes.
The BBC’s Nuclear Bunker
November 1st, 2010Via: Independent:
It all makes sense, once you know what you’re looking at. The 200 acres of thickly wooded hillside, inaccessible by public footpath; the radio mast strategically poking out on top; the hidden entrance, just off the A44 near Evesham, in Worcestershire, surrounded by CCTV cameras and a high-security barrier. But to the passing motorist, there is nothing about Wood Norton Hall to identify it as the site of the BBC’s secret nuclear bunker.
Who knew there even was such a thing? The BBC would certainly rather we didn’t. It emerged recently that, from tomorrow, the continuity announcers at Radio 4 will decamp there for three weeks while a £1bn refurbishment is finished at Broadcasting House, London. However, a corporation source declined to confirm or deny the story. They would rather not discuss what goes on at Wood Norton, she said, and no, The Independent on Sunday was certainly not welcome to come and visit.
So, what don’t they want us to see?
According to the official line, Wood Norton is a training camp, where sound engineers are sent for residential weekends. That is certainly one function: zoom in on Google Earth and you see a compound of modern buildings nestled in the woods which, according to engineers who have visited the site, are equipped with the latest high-tech facilities. Other blocks house accommodation and a canteen. But it’s what you can’t see from above the ground that is intriguing.
Buried 10 storeys into the hillside is a fully functioning nuclear bunker, built at great expense in 1966, at the height of the Cold War. So few people knew of its existence that, even when it was being built, visiting trainees were told not to ask why all that concrete was being mixed. Those involved in its construction were obliged to sign the Official Secrets Act, and even now you won’t get a peep out of the BBC press office to acknowledge the reality.
3D Building Projection
November 1st, 2010This will definitely be old news to many of you, but I just randomly stumbled across this tonight.
3D animated scenes are projected onto building exteriors. The computer generated imagery incorporates the building’s architecture. The effect can be pretty astonishing.
Here are several clips of work done by a company called NuFormer.
I’ll include one I happened to watch:
There are dozens of these clips around. Just search for “building projection” if you want to see more.
Anyway, if this type of thing is being used to peddle big screen TVs and footwear, I wonder what .mil’s capability is along these lines?
“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to start searching your crotchal area”
November 1st, 2010Via: The Atlantic:
At BWI, I told the officer who directed me to the back-scatter that I preferred a pat-down. I did this in order to see how effective the manual search would be. When I made this request, a number of TSA officers, to my surprise, began laughing. I asked why. One of them — the one who would eventually conduct my pat-down — said that the rules were changing shortly, and that I would soon understand why the back-scatter was preferable to the manual search. I asked him if the new guidelines included a cavity search. “No way. You think Congress would allow that?”
I answered, “If you’re a terrorist, you’re going to hide your weapons in your anus or your vagina.” He blushed when I said “vagina.”
“Yes, but starting tomorrow, we’re going to start searching your crotchal area” — this is the word he used, “crotchal” — and you’re not going to like it.”
“What am I not going to like?” I asked.
“We have to search up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance,” he explained.
“Resistance?” I asked.
“Your testicles,” he explained.
‘That’s funny,” I said, “because ‘The Resistance’ is the actual name I’ve given to my testicles.”
He answered, “Like ‘The Situation,’ that guy from ‘Jersey Shore?'”
Yes, exactly, I said. (I used to call my testicles “The Insurgency,” but those assholes in Iraq ruined the term.)
I pointed out to the security officer that 50 percent of the American population has no balls (90 percent in Washington, D.C., where I live), so what is going to happen when the pat-down officer meets no resistance in the crotchal area of women? “If there’s no resistance, then there’s nothing there.”
“But what about people who hide weapons in their cavities? I asked. I actually said “vagina” again, just to see him blush. “We’re just not going there,” he reiterated.
I asked him if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. “Nobody’s going to do it,” he said, “once they find out that we’re going to do.”
In other words, people, when faced with a choice, will inevitably choose the Dick-Measuring Device over molestation? “That’s what we’re hoping for. We’re trying to get everyone into the machine.” He called over a colleague. “Tell him what you call the back-scatter,” he said. “The Dick-Measuring Device,” I said. “That’s the truth,” the other officer responded.
The pat-down at BWI was fairly vigorous, by the usual tame standards of the TSA, but it was nothing like the one I received the next day at T.F. Green in Providence. Apparently, I was the very first passenger to ask to opt-out of back-scatter imaging. Several TSA officers heard me choose the pat-down, and they reacted in a way meant to make the ordinary passenger feel very badly about his decision. One officer said to a colleague who was obviously going to be assigned to me, “Get new gloves, man, you’re going to need them where you’re going.”
The agent snapped on his blue gloves, and patiently explained exactly where he was going to touch me. I felt like a sophomore at Oberlin.
“I’m going to run my hands up your thighs, and then feel your buttocks, then I’m going to reach under you until I meet –”
“Resistance?” I interrupted.
“Yes, resistance. Do you want to go into a private room?” he asked.
“Are you asking me into a private room?” I said. He looked confused. I said, “No, here is fine.”
…
The obvious goal of the TSA is to make the pat-down embarrassing enough for the average passenger that the vast majority of people will choose high-tech humiliation over the low-tech ball check.
